Tower of Shadow

Lost in Shadow starts with a boy held captive atop a tower. There is no dialogue, so it leaves you wondering: Why is a kid dressed in a hoodie being held prisoner? Soon after, a dark figure appears and a sword materializes in his hand. You think that it’s all over for the boy, but it isn’t. His shadow is severed from his body, and it’s thrown from atop the tower.

The boy’s shadow wakes up, and that’s the start of the game, producer Shinichi Kasahara tells me. The shadow has to return to the body, from whence it came. “It’s like Peter Pan in reverse,” I say. The translator translates. Kasahara finds it curious. Since it’s been announced and shown, everyone has had their take on this unique platformer. They say it apes Ico. Other than the color palette, it doesn’t. Some say it looks like the experimental game Shadow Physics.

But director director Osamu Tsuchihashi say he got the idea much earlier, watching kids play in Japan, Kasahara said. He said the children were playing shadow tag and that fun with light and dark inspired the defining mechanic in Lost in Shadow. When I actually got my hands on the Wii project, I was impressed with the feel and the thought that went into its levels. I moved the shadow around with the nunchuk and manipulated objects by moving the butterfly-shaped cursor via the Wii remote and pressing the B button. It moved these beams on the foreground so that it casts changing shadows on the background.

Ever wonder what the inside of a PlayStation 3 Slim looks like? Well, now you have the answer. The folks over at ifixit have taken apart a Sony’s console update, and they have the video to prove it. If you don’t mind the snazzy music, it does a good job at showing what you actually get for $299.

As for the upcoming Firmware 3.0 update, it’s apparently the last major update for the PS3 this year, according to Eric Lempel, PlayStation Network’s operations director. He told G4TV that there may be little, baby updates but nothing as huge as Firmware 3.0. If you haven’t seen what the new software brings to the table, check it out here.

HOPE THESE DON’T SUCK: I have a love-hate relationship with Mad Catz. I love the idea of their controllers. I have Tournament Edition two Fight Sticks at home. It’s just that their execution is worth diddly poo. There always seems to be one thing wrong with their controllers and it irks me to no end. Anyway, IGN has a scoop about the upcomingCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 peripherals. I like the graphical touches and the back lighting and the combat buttons on the back. Let’s just hope these controllers don’t have design flaws or shoddy worksmanship like the other Mad Catz controllers I bought.

THIS COULD BE AMAZING: The first time I saw a game like this was on Twitter. Someone had posted a link to the experimental game Shadow Physics and I was amazed. It looks like designer Osamu Tsuchihashi had similar ideas and ran with it. GameSetWatch has an interesting post about the influence behind Tower of Shadow and guess what? It’s not Fumita Ueda-related.

MEGAN FOX FANS: OK, this sounds dirty, but fans have a chance to play with Megan Fox on Saturday. If you can get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about playing a match against Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. All you need is an Xbox Live Gold account, free time Aug. 29 at 3 p.m. PDT and the DLC map pack.

MORE PEGGLE ON XBLA: If you can’t get enough Peggle on Xbox Live Arcade, you’re in luck. PopCap just announced that they’ll be bringing Peggle Nights to the platform as an expansion pack. Look out for the extra content this fall.